Service for Easter Sunday – 31st March 2024
SERVICE FOR EASTER SUNDAY – 31st March 2024
Happy Easter! Welcome to our Easter Sunday worship. After the Liturgy there is an Easter breakfast in the church garden.
The presiding priest is Fr Marcus Ronchetti. The deacon is The Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali.
Hymn 110 (Easter Hymn) Jesus Christ is risen to-day, Alleluya!
Priest: Alleluia! Christ is risen
All: He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
The priest then welcomes the people of God and the deacon leads us into Confession.
Silence
Deacon: Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life.
Kyrie eleison
All: Kyrie eleison
Deacon: Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins.
Christe eleison
All: Christe eleison
Deacon: Lord Jesus, you feed us with the living bread.
Kyrie eleison
All: Kyrie eleison
Absolution: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gloria: Glory in the highest to the God of heavens:
Peace to all your people through the earth be given.
Mighty God and Father, thanks and praise we bring,
Singing Alleluia! To the heavenly King.
Jesus Christ is risen, God the Father’s Son;
With the Holy Spirit, you are Lord alone.
Lamb once killed for sinners, all our guilt to bear,
Show us now your mercy, now receive our prayer.
Christ the world’s true Saviour, high and holy one,
Seated now and reigning from your Father’s throne:
Lord and God, we praise you! Highest heaven adores:
In the Father’s glory, all the praise be yours!
Collect: Let us pray (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day)
God of glory, by the raising of your Son you have broken the chains of death and hell: fill your Church with faith and hope: for a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
First Reading (please sit) Acts 10, 34- 43
Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
This is the word of the Lord
All: Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
Psalm: Psalm 118: 1-2; 14-24
Second Reading: (please sit) 1 Corinthians 15.1-11
Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed.
Gradual: 113 (Savannah) Love’s redeeming work is done
Gospel Reading
Deacon: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is risen. Alleluia!
All (sung): Alleluia
Deacon: The Lord be with you
All: and also with you
Deacon: Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John (John 20. 1-18 )
All: Glory to you, O Lord
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[c] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and
announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
At the end of the Gospel
Deacon: This is the gospel of the Lord, Alleluia!
All: (Sung) Alleluia
Sermon (Please sit) Fr. Marcus Ronchetti
Renewal of Baptismal belief
In baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him. Therefore I ask:
Priest: Do you reject the devil and all rebellion against God?
All: I reject them.
Priest: Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil?
All: I renounce them.
Priest: Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour?
All: I repent of them.
Priest: Do you turn to Christ as Saviour?
All: I turn to Christ.
Priest: Do you submit to Christ as Lord?
All: I submit to Christ.
Priest: Do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life?
All: I come to Christ.
Priest: Do you believe and trust in God the Father?
All: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Priest: Do you believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ
All: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Priest: Do you believe and trust in the Holy Spirit?
All: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Intercessions: Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Peace: Alleluia! Alleluia! The risen Lord came among his disciples and said, ‘Peace be with you’. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord! Alleluia!
Priest: Alleluia! Alleluia! The peace of the Lord be always with you.
All: And also with you. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Offertory 121 (This Joyful Eastertide) This joyful Eastertide (The Collection will be taken)
Priest: Be present, be present Lord Jesus Christ, our risen high priest: make yourself known in the breaking of bread. Amen.
The Great Thanksgiving Prayer ( Please remain standing for this)
Priest: The Lord be with you
All: and also with you
Priest: Lift up your hearts
All: We lift them to the Lord
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
All: It is right to give thanks and praise
The priest then continues singing the prayer to which we all listen with prayerful hearts until
‘for evermore praising you and singing’…
All: Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
The prayer continues until the Acclamation:
Deacon: Jesus Christ is the bread of life, Alleluia!
All (sung): And I will raise you up, and I will raise you up,
and I will raise you up on the last day.
Deacon: Jesus Christ is the cup of salvation, Alleluia!
All (sung): And I will raise you up, and I will raise you up,
and I will raise you up on the last day.
At the end of the Thanksgiving Prayer Amen. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
The Lord’s Prayer: (to be prayed in your own language)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Priest: We break this bread to share in the body of the risen Christ.
All: Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread.
Invitation to Holy Communion
Priest: Alleluia! Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us
All: Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia!
Sung: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
All baptized Christians may come forward to receive the body and blood of Christ. If you wish you may receive a blessing.
Communion Hymn. : 93 (Were You There?) Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Post Communion Prayer: Let us pray (please stand)
God of life, who for our redemption gave your only begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection have delivered us from the power of our enemy: grant us to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live in him in the joy of his risen life; though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
All: You have opened to us the Scriptures, O Christ, and you have made yourself known in the breaking of bread. Abide with us, we pray, that blessed by your royal presence, we may walk with you all the days of our life, and at its end behold you in the glory of the eternal Trinity, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Notices and Easter Song: Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, alleluia! We’ll praise the Lord.
We’ll praise the Lord, Alleluia!
Post Communion Hymn: 120 (Maccabeus) Thine be the Glory
Priest: God the Father, by whose love Christ was raised from the dead, open to you who believe the gates of eternal life.
All: Amen
Priest: God the Son, who in bursting from the grave has won a glorious victory, give you
joy as you share the Easter faith.
All: Amen
Priest: God the Holy Spirit, who filled the disciples with the joy of the risen Lord,
empower you and fill you with Christ’s peace.
All: Amen
Priest: And the blessing….
Deacon: Go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
All: Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Notices
-Coffee Mornings. April 11th in the Church Garden 10.30-12.30, ask Anne Dedes for information
-The Annual Parochial Church Meeting is on April 14th. We elect the Wardens and some of the Council members, and receive the Annual Accounts. Electoral Roll forms are available in church or on our church website. Election forms are available from Jean Mertzanakis.
–please look after your personal belongings as thieves are known to operate in this are
–A POS is available so you can make your Sunday donation by card
-A QR code is now functioning, you can donate simply by scanning it. See noticeboard. – weekly ‘online’ Prayer Group on Tuesdays at 09.00 a.m. Zoom login is on our website.
-Choral Evensong tonight at 18.00
Deacon Chris: 22950 53164: Day off – Friday
Swedish Church: contact Fr. Bjorn on 694 607 2428
The Anglican Church in Greece (including St. Paul’s) is self – financing, and receives no income other than from the generosity of those who worship here. We are a legal body and we pay tax. Our tax number is 997073090. If you wish to donate direct to our bank (IBAN) the account with Piraeus Bank is: The Anglican Church in Greece, St. Paul’s Athens GR 820172 0500 0050 5008 6327 479 Swift code is PIRB GRAA
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